The oldest car I can think of locally is one that used to sit inside an old, condemned factory on the outskirts of Pollensa. The place is now more overgrown with weeds and general rubbish than it used to be some years ago when I explored the outside with my first digi, the D200. Unlike Keith who trawls Greek ruins from the inside, too! I have a certain dislike for such places - I get spooked by my imagination and have this fear of falling through the surface into a well or cisterna from which I can't exit or scream my way out... let me be frank: I'm no hero to myself! Also, I have seen huge spiders in the house, never mind in the wilds of a ruin! Scorpions I don't mind; saw enough of them in India to have developed respect and not horror.

Anyway, that damned car's probably not worth the risk: a tiny Fiat 500 of many years ago; nope, definitely not worth the risk!

Wow! My faher-in-law had a Humber Hawk in '54 (very close match in looks and colour) and my wife learned to drive in it. It had a stick on the side of the steering column (or was that his next one?) and I remember hitting reverse too many times for it to be funny.

In '74 I bought a Humber Sceptre and it was lovely inside: lots of wood, Jaeger instruments, overdrive in third and top, a beautiful car in its day. AND you could see the four corners! But there you are: they were lovely cars and far better furnished than Ford or Vauxhall (GM) at similar prices and yet they went down the tubes... It's a mad world.

Mr Moon was my teacher in third class and again for part of 5th class. He had a big black Humber Super Snipe which I would gaze at when I arrived at school, convinced that one day the Queen was going to wave from it. Such grand elegance!

Later I had a somewhat pneumatically blessed girl friend who had the words SUPER and SNIPE printed in psychedelic ovals over her scented orbs and the optical illusion was breathtaking.

Mr Moon was my teacher in third class and again for part of 5th class. He had a big black Humber Super Snipe which I would gaze at when I arrived at school, convinced that one day the Queen was going to wave from it. Such grand elegance!

Later I had a somewhat pneumatically blessed girl friend who had the words SUPER and SNIPE printed in psychedelic ovals over her scented orbs and the optical illusion was breathtaking.

Car interiors seemed somehow more hand-made back then.

I'm not going to say a word about scented orbs. Car interiors were definitely more appealing in some of the old cars; I always found Jaguar to make the most glamorous cockpits of them all, and I still think that they do. Mercedes and BMW are just not up there with them, least of all BMW who seem to relish gloom.

But it was all in the wood and the leather.

They do an annual car show in the town of Pollensa, and all the dealers put up stands in the open air. One year there was a fantastic Jaguar XJ in a metallic red and with white upholstery. It was just the living end. I learnd the meaning of covet, that Sunday morning.

I also liked the first one best, both for the shapes and the textures. They are all good, but that one seems to stand out for me. Guess you're definitely a Mini fan, then, apart from just buying into them for yourself and child...

Is that a Delorean I see up on a flight path¿ Turned out to have cost the UK government's taxpayers a stack of notes for nothing. That's the problem with governmental intervention: they did it in Scotland, too, introducing a car business into a region with no such history all in the name of fuller employment. Crazy, in this case, because the Hillman Imp factory was started from zero close to Glasgow, but the engines and pretty much the rest of it had to come up from hundreds of miles away down south in England. I also remember seeing the Volvo P1800(?), the Saint's car - unpainted bodies up on the backs of open trucks heading off elsewhere, bodies exposed to the rain etc. We had several Imps and the first one was very hot - untampered-with Coventry Climax engine, but later ones were all detuned to some extent. Actually, we ended up running the Humber and an Imp together - the wee Imp had a rear window that opened out and I used to transport 9' wide rolls of background paper in it, which was impossible in the larger vehicle.

Is that a Delorean I see up on a flight path¿ Turned out to have cost the UK government's taxpayers a stack of notes for nothing.

Rob C

Aye, tis a Delorean with a bit of modifications. This is the newer model with the 'assisted park' feature.

The UK government isn't unique in thinking politicians know more about running a car company than the car company itself. Or, who can be easily sold on the idea that after the car company pros who had control of all the money and policies that led then down the merry path of bankruptcy.. all they'll need now is to throw zillions more good after the bad and somehow all will be better. About as believable imho as flying cars that take you back to the future...

I had a similar car to Walter's Chrysler though his is a few years older than mine was. I had a 1949 Chrysler New Yorker, straight 8 Fluid Drive transmission. This was a very unique transmission in that you used the column mounted, three speed manual transmission in the normal sense, shifting properly until you reached about 35 mph. At this point, upon stopping for a light or whatever, you no longer had to shift the transmission but instead, as you accelerated forward, you would listen for the hydraulics to "shift" the transmission up to the next gear, ease off the gas, allow the shift to take place then accelerate to the next shift point.

This was my first car and I was quite popular because we could stuff two couples in the trunk when heading to the Drive-In movie. Trust me, there was ample room for two couples in the back seat for whatever silliness they wanted to partake in.

I had a similar car to Walter's Chrysler though his is a few years older than mine was. I had a 1949 Chrysler New Yorker, straight 8 Fluid Drive transmission. This was a very unique transmission in that you used the column mounted, three speed manual transmission in the normal sense, shifting properly until you reached about 35 mph. At this point, upon stopping for a light or whatever, you no longer had to shift the transmission but instead, as you accelerated forward, you would listen for the hydraulics to "shift" the transmission up to the next gear, ease off the gas, allow the shift to take place then accelerate to the next shift point.

This was my first car and I was quite popular because we could stuff two couples in the trunk when heading to the Drive-In movie. Trust me, there was ample room for two couples in the back seat for whatever silliness they wanted to partake in.